Dennis Wheatley - Duke de Richleau 07 (38 page)

His heart felt as though
it were being crushed between two revolving mill-stones, but he could only say:
“My sweet Princess, I swear that I have never loved anyone as I love you; and
that I would cut off my right hand, if by doing so I could spare you a moment’s
pain. But the only way now in which I can protect you from scandal is to leave
Vienna.”

She nodded, but her voice
was very near to tears as she pleaded: “But not yet. Not for a few days, at
least.”

Deceiving her, even
partially, about the reason for his departure was hateful to him; but he knew
that even had Dimitriyevitch and Sir Pellinore been no more than a part of some
awful dream, it would still have been incumbent on him to leave Vienna for her
sake, and the sooner the better. So he said:

“I beg you to be brave
and face the facts, beloved. If I stayed on we dare not risk a meeting. Even if
we were seen riding together in the Prater, a story would now be made of it.
And to linger for even twenty-four hours is to risk receiving an order to go.
If once that happened, I should be debarred from returning; whereas if I go at
once—”

Like a drowning woman she
clutched at the straw. “You’ll come back, then? Oh, when? When?”

“We must allow time for
the air to clear—time enough for it to sink into people’s minds that the honour
you have done me was not for the reason they thought.”

“Be more precise, I beg
you.”

He considered the matter
for a moment without regard to any others, and replied: “If we are not to
defeat our own purpose, I ought not to reappear here in less than eight weeks.”

“Oh, Armand, no! I cannot
wait a whole two months before I see you again. I cannot! Besides, at any time
now fresh plans may be started for marrying me off. Go now if you must: but
surely you can return to Vienna in secret. You were so bold and clever at
Ischl, when you acted the part of a guide. If you really love me, you will
think of some other plan like that by which we can at least see one another.”

Her words found a ready
echo in the Duke’s own heart. He had every reason to suppose that within ten
days of his arrival in Belgrade he would either have found out Dimitriyevitch’s
plans and initiated plans to foil them, or, if he had failed, that the mine
would have been sprung, leaving him free to get out of Serbia as best he could.
He nodded.

“If it is humanly
possible, I will do as you suggest. But I beg you, dear love, to be patient for
a fortnight.”

Ilona’s face brightened. “You
promise me faithfully then, to be back here by the end of the month?”

The band stopped playing.
The dance was over, and he knew that he must take her back to the dais in a few
moments. Lowering his voice still further, he said: “I promise. Now hold out
your hand as though a button of your glove had come undone, and you wished me
to do it up for you.”

She did as he asked, and
he deftly slipped the little ruby through the opening of the glove into her
palm. “That,” he whispered with a smile, “is my birthday present to you. It
represents my own heart, and I give it to you for ever.”

“Thank you, dear Armand,”
she breathed. “You have mine already.”

Five minutes later he had
bowed his way backwards from her and once again mingled with the glittering
throng. Perturbed as he was about her health, he had had no chance to ask her
about it, or urge her again to see her doctor; but her hectic flush and
coughing fits were so obviously abnormal that he hoped her family would insist
on her doing so while he was away.

That led him to speculate
unhappily on what he could say to her on his return, if war had broken out in
the meantime and forced them into hostile camps. He was determined to keep his
promise to her, even at the risk of being put into an aliens’ detention camp
until he could escape. But, having kept it, in the worst event, he must somehow
get back to England to take his part in the fight. The whole dark future seemed
to bristle with so many difficulties and dangers that he tried to force it from
his mind, but its awful possibilities insisted on contrasting themselves with
this magnificent assembly, in which he was but one of a thousand colourful
bubbles that seemed to float and mingle so gracefully to the airs of Schubert,
Liszt and Strauss. Soon after he had left Ilona he saw Sophie von Hohenberg
again, and she gave him an arch smile. Had he been able to foresee the future
he would have shuddered, for in fifteen days she was to die.

He would have left early
if he could, but etiquette demanded that he should remain until the Imperial
party withdrew. Moreover, having danced with Ilona, prudence demanded that he
should also be seen dancing with other ladies, and another three hours elapsed
before those walls, that had known so many generations of glory, echoed for the
very last time to the Austrian National Anthem played in the presence of the
Habsburgs.

He had already given
notice in the office at Sacher’s that he would be vacating his rooms next day.
In the morning he bade good-bye to Frau Sacher, and asked her to have the bulk
of his luggage sent to Königstein, as it might be a considerable time before he
visited Vienna again. At the station he left one large portmanteau in the
cloak-room, against the possibility of his returning in secret; then, with his
two remaining suitcases, he boarded the train for Budapest.

The gay and beautiful
Hungarian capital had always been a favourite spot with him so, since he had
had to leave the city that held his beloved Ilona, he was by no means averse to
putting in a night and a day there. He went to the Vadersk
ü
rt,
where he had previously stayed, and they made him very comfortable. But he did
not call upon Count Esterhazy, or any of his other Hungarian friends, as to
have done so would have necessitated awkward explanations regarding the
shortness of his stay. The weather was heavenly, so he spent most of the Monday
swimming and sun-bathing then, that night, he caught the train on to Belgrade.

The French manager of the
Cosmopolitan was most pleased to see him again and installed him in the same
room. Soon afterwards the moustached gentleman with the lemon-coloured boots
and the photograph album of local ladies in the near-nude appeared, but was
swiftly dismissed. The Duke then wrote a note to Colonel Dimitriyevitch,
reporting his arrival, and sent it by hand to the War Office.

Lunch in the hotel was served
at mid-day and the main course proved to be goat steaks stewed with olives. De
Richleau had often eaten goat in the Balkans and thought it not unpleasant,
providing it was tender; but the dish was certainly a change from the food in
Vienna. By the time he had finished his meal the town had become very hot, so,
no reply having so far come from Dimitriyevitch, he adopted the local summer
custom of the siesta, and spent the afternoon in his underclothes, drowsing on
his bed.

At four o’clock a porter
came up to say that Major Tankosić was below, and would like to see him;
so, as soon as he was dressed, De Richleau went down and greeted his old
acquaintance of the bald head and bulldog jowl. Tankosić had been sent to
welcome him and take him out to the châlet, at which, it transpired,
Dimitriyevitch wished them both to dine and stay the night. So, directly the
Duke had repacked a bag, they set off together in Tankosić’s noisy
Renault.

On their arrival, Tankosić
said that it might be an hour or so before the Chief was able to join them, and
proposed that they should while away the time by a little shooting. De Richleau
demurred that it was hardly worth while going out after game just for an hour,
but it turned out that Tankosić had in mind potting empty bottles with
pistols in the yard at the back of the house. On the Duke agreeing, the bulky
Serbian opened an oak chest in the hall, in which lay, besides three rifles,
half a dozen automatics and some two dozen spare clips already loaded. Taking a
pistol and a handful of clips each, they went outside, and one of the servants
was called to set up a row of bottles on the roof of a hen house.

Tankosić then bet De
Richleau a hundred
dinars
that out of fifty shots each at fifty feet he would smash the most bottles. The
Duke took the bet and lost; not because he was the worse shot, but because on
this particular occasion he had a sudden premonition that later it might prove
to his advantage to be thought a poor one. All the same, he would have had his
work cut out to beat Tankosić, as that worthy was an extremely able
performer. As he took the Duke’s money, he grinned cheerfully and said:

“Ah well, Excellency, it
is not so necessary for a General to be a crack shot. Still, when I become a
General myself in a few weeks’ time, situations may yet arise in which I shall
find it useful.”

De Richleau raised his
dark eyebrows. “I congratulate you, Major, on your prospects of such rapid
promotion.”

“The Chief tells me that
you are to be one of us,” declared the Serbian, with a shrug of his bull-like
shoulders, “so there is no point in concealing the matter. Marko Ciganović,
who you met with me when you were here before, and I are content with lowly
ranks for the moment. So is the Chief himself. But all that will be changed in
a fortnight or so. The Voyvode Putnik is to be retained as Commander-in-Chief,
because he is a great soldier. But all other matters will be directed by
Dimitriyevitch openly, with myself and Ciganović as his right hand and his
left.”

“Good luck to you then,
General,” said the Duke amiably, with a mock salute, as he thought to himself: ‘So
once a state of war has been declared, and what little liberty there is in
Serbia has been suppressed by emergency decrees, these three thugs mean to run
the country between them. I wonder how King Peter will like that idea?’

Returning the salute with
a wink, Tankosić led the way back into the house and called for drinks.
Then they sat chatting over them in the big lounge, which held the hunting
trophies, old masters and Persian rugs, until Dimitriyevitch arrived in his
Rolls, accompanied by the chinless, pale-eyed Captain Ciganović.

Over dinner no mention
whatever was made of the future, but the little Colonel questioned De Richleau
closely about his stay in Austria and, having good grounds for supposing
Dimitriyevitch’s espionage system there to be excellent, the Duke was much too
wily to tell any lies. He confirmed the Serbian opinion that the Austrian
officers were a happy-go-lucky lot, who thought much more about amusing
themselves than training their troops, and spoke of having made the
acquaintance of a number of important people, including the Heir Apparent;
although he refrained from mentioning that he had actually entertained the
Archduke, as he did not wish to stress the fact unnecessarily that his
relations with the Austrians were as cordial as was actually the case. When
asked his opinion of Franz Ferdinand, he replied:

“He is no fool and takes
a keen interest in his duties, particularly where army matters are concerned;
but he is inclined to be morose by nature and his marriage has added greatly to
his unpopularity with the Austrian aristocracy. His wife has great influence
with him, and having been courted herself by Wilhelm II she has used it to make
him strongly pro-German. They are to entertain the Kaiser at Konopischt for
three days this week.”

“I know it,” nodded the
Colonel. “And afterwards, he is to be present at the army manœvres which this
year are to take place in Bosnia in considerable strength. Tell me, now, your
impressions of von Hötzendorf, Count Tisza, Count Hoyos, and the others whom
you met.”

For over an hour De
Richleau discoursed on these personalities, and conditions as he had found them
in Austria. Then, when the servants had gone for the night, Dimitriyevitch
stroked back his brush of hair, and said:

“I asked you here
to-night so that I could take you with me straight to the office in the
morning. Later Ciganović will take you to his tailor, so that you can be
measured for your uniform, but the man is not to be told what badges of rank to
put on it yet. For the time being you can quite well do all that is required of
you in civilian clothes. Belgrade is a small place, and I don’t want it to get
about that you are to serve in a high position on our General Staff. It is lots
of little pointers like that, taken together, which make a picture; and we must
be careful not to set the Austrians at the Legation thinking. I will arrange
for your initiation into our Brotherhood towards the end of the week, and also
for you to be presented to His Majesty. In the meantime you can get a general
view of our plans and resources, and meet various people with whom your duties
are likely to bring you into frequent contact.”

Nothing was said that
night of the Black Hand’s secret intentions, and De Richleau felt that it would
be indiscreet to lead the conversation in that direction, so he confined his
questions to matters concerning the state of things in Serbia generally, and
they talked mainly about the country until they went to bed.